Film Review

A young scholar spends the night in a creepy temple that is said to be haunted. He doesn't believe in the rumors, but after running into a Taoist swordsman, he meets a beautiful lady ghost. She is forced by an evil old witch to seduce young men, so the witch can kill them and drink their blood...

This 1959 color production from the famous Shaw Bros. is finally available in a gorgeously restored version. By far the oldest movie I've seen from Hong Kong so far, this classic of the fantasy/horror genre, while very slow moving, is really charming and well worth watching after all these years. Like many Hong Kong movies, this one too is based on a story from famous Ching dynasty author Song-Ling Pu's collection of over 400 ghost and love stories. In 1987, the film was remade into one of the most popular and spectacular Hong Kong movies ever: "A Chinese Ghost Story".